As man finds ways to forge deeper into the wilderness he also finds the need to be more self-reliant. Snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles (ATVs) are routinely fitted with winches to allow riders to pull themselves from bad situations. It is important that these winches are controlled and controllable so that a safe, easy extraction can be performed that preserves the vehicle as well as the rider. It is also important the a winch controller protect the winch which can be an adventurer's only lifeline when stuck deep in the woods. U.S. Pat. No. 6,864,650 B2 describes a controller for a winch that provides fault detection for battery voltage, temperature, motor temperature and voltage drop. The controller unit also has an overload interrupt. The described unit however is low amperage and costly to produce. Further, the gates of the bridge are driven directly by the microprocessor which slows gate turn-on.
An effective winch controller should protect not only the motor, but also the control circuitry, battery storage and have sufficient power to recover all types of vehicles. It should also be efficient, reliable and cost effective. A need remains for such a device.
All patents, patent applications, provisional patent applications and publications referred to or cited herein, are incorporated by reference in their entirety to the extent they are not inconsistent with the teachings of the specification.